DistroWatch Weekly

A weekly opinion column and a summary of events from the distribution world

DistroWatch Weekly

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 117, 12 September 2005

Welcome to this year's 37th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. Last week was an exciting one - besides GNOME 2.12 and the first beta release of Firefox 1.5, four major Linux distributions have been sprinting towards the finishing line, with the brand new Slackware Linux 10.2 release now imminent and the other three following within the next few weeks. In the meanwhile, Debian has announced security support for its testing branch, a move that will likely be greeted with much enthusiasm among the Debian users. Also in this week's issue: Microsoft tries to recruit a well-known open source advocate, a brief look at Foresight Linux and a quick review of Linux+ DVD, a popular European Linux magazine. Happy reading!

What an exciting week this was! Besides a stable release of GNOME 2.12 and a beta version of Firefox 1.5, four major Linux distributions have entered the final stages of their development cycles - Mandriva Linux 2006, Slackware Linux 10.2, SUSE Linux 10.0 and Ubuntu Linux 5.10. Of these, which one is going to be the winner? While Ubuntu seems like a distribution with the most new features, it is Mandriva's latest beta release that caught our attention during the past week. The reason? The breathtaking boot speed.

That's right - while many distributions have been talking about speeding up the boot process, an area where no Linux distribution compares favourably with Microsoft Windows, it seems that the developers of Mandriva did not just talk - they simply did it! And the result? On our Pentium 4 test box with 384MB of RAM, Mandriva 2006 RC1 takes 23 seconds to boot into the console login prompt, and 52 seconds into full KDE (bypassing the KDM login screen)! This is a remarkable achievement when compared to SUSE Linux 10.0 RC1, which takes 108 seconds to boot into KDE, or Fedora Core, which needs 76 seconds to boot into GNOME on the same system.

And while on the subject of Mandriva's upcoming release, here is a quick tip for those who wish to follow its development process. The easiest way to do so is to point the urpmi source to the "cooker" branch on your favourite mirror. You can do that from within the graphical user interface of DrakConf, or from the command line with urpmi.addmedia:

After the above command retrieves the "hdlist" file, you can perform an upgrade with

urpmi.update cooker
urpmi --auto-select --auto
urpmi kernel

Once the process completes you will be running the very latest cooker snapshot as it converges towards the stable release of Mandriva Linux 2006. Be aware, though, that some users have reported strange video behaviours due to the fact that Mandriva 2006 uses a development snapshot or X.Org, rather than the current stable version 6.8.2. Other than that, the new Mandriva is already looking pretty good. But don't expect it to be released according to schedule; the way things are progressing, it is likely that the final release of Mandriva Linux 2006, originally scheduled for release later this week, will be delayed by at least a week.

* * * * *

Debian adds security support for testing

The Debian project has announced full security support for its "testing" branch, currently also known as "etch":

"The Debian testing security team is pleased to announce the beginning of full security support for Debian's testing distribution. We have spent the past year building the team, tracking and fixing security holes, and creating our infrastructure, and now the final pieces are in place, and we are able to offer security updates and advisories for testing. We invite Debian users who are currently running testing, or who would like to switch to testing, to subscribe to the secure-testing-announce mailing list, which is used to announce security updates."

This unexpected decision is likely to be greeted with approval by many Debian fans. Since the distribution's stable releases only occur once every few years, many Debian users, especially those using their favourite distribution on the desktops and other less critical systems, prefer to run one of the Debian's development branches - unstable ("sid") or testing ("etch"). While the unstable branch is relatively highly up-to-date and security issues are usually dealt with promptly by upgrading the vulnerable package to a newer version, this is not always the case with the testing branch. As such, running the testing branch in a networked environment has always presented a potential security risk. Luckily, with the above-mentioned announcement, this is no longer true.

* * * * *

Dr Frederick H Berenstein, Xandros co-founder & Chairman dies

A sad news from Xandros Corporation tells us that the company's co-founder and Chairman, Dr Frederick H Berenstein, died last week at the age of 59:

"I have the sad duty to announce that Dr. Frederick H. Berenstein, our co-founder and Chairman, died on September 6, 2005, after a courageous battle over many years," Xandros CEO, Andreas Typaldos, announced today. 'Beyond Rick’s vision, inspiration, and leadership, which our industry, our company, and all of us will miss, I will personally miss his example of quiet courage, and his indomitable will, and determination. It is that courage and will, which enabled him to fight his illness, that also inspired Rick to push Linux forward, ahead of most other people, through visionary investments in companies such Ximian, CodeWeavers, and finally Xandros. His belief in the inevitability of Linux, from the days when I first met Rick in 1999 as one of his founding group of investors in Linux Global Partners, the Linux incubator that he had co-founded with his friend Wm. Jay Roseman, was infectious and hard to argue with,' Typaldos continued. 'There simply will not be another like him.'

Finally, something to brighten up your Monday - an amusing story, as shared by Eric S Raymond. Last week, the well-known open source advocate was approached by none other than Microsoft Corporation - with a job offer!

Now, if you are new to Linux and the open source movement, here is a little background. Among the many other claims to fame, Eric S Raymond is the author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, a 1991 book that discusses the differences between a centralised software development model (i.e. cathedral = proprietary software) and the open and decentralised development model (i.e. bazaar = open source software). He is also the person who has published and commented the famous Halloween documents, a series of Microsoft internal memoranda discussing strategies to fight (and destroy) Linux and other open source software. To illustrate the stance of Eric S Raymond, here is his comment accompanying one of the Halloween documents:

"For Microsoft (or at least its present business model) to survive, open source must die. It's a lot like the Cold War was; peaceful coexistence could be a stable solution for us, but it can never be for them, because they can't tolerate the corrosive effect on their customer relationships of comparisons with a more open system. (Anyone who thinks I'm being perfervid or overly melodramatic about this should review the direct long-term revenue and platform threat language from Halloween I. Other people may fool themselves about what this means, but Microsoft never has.)."

So even if you haven't heard of Eric S Raymond before, you should know by now that he is no friend of Microsoft -- and that's if we put it mildly. Now imagine the utter shock the following email must have caused when it appeared in Eric's mailbox last week:

"I am a member of the Microsoft Central Sourcing Team. Microsoft is seeking world class engineers to help create products that help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential. Your name and contact info was brought to my attention as someone who could potentially be a contributor at Microsoft. I would love an opportunity to speak with you in detail about your interest in a career at Microsoft, along with your experience, background and qualifications. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have and can also provide you with any information I have available in regard to the positions and work life at Microsoft."

Not surprisingly, this outrageous offer resulted in a reply that the Microsoft executive will never forget for as long as he lives:

"I'd thank you for your offer of employment at Microsoft, except that it indicates that either you or your research team (or both) couldn't get a clue if it were pounded into you with baseball bats. What were you going to do with the rest of your afternoon, offer jobs to Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds? Or were you going to stick to something easier, like talking Pope Benedict into presiding at a Satanist orgy?"

Later in the email response, Eric continues to pile on more analogies on the hapless Microsoft executive:

"On the day *I* go to work for Microsoft, faint oinking sounds will be heard from far overhead, the moon will not merely turn blue but develop polkadots, and hell will freeze over so solid the brimstone will go superconductive. But I must thank you for dropping a good joke on my afternoon. On that hopefully not too far distant day that I piss on Microsoft's grave, I sincerely hope none of it will splash on you."

You can read the entire email exchange (and more amusing reader's comments) on this page.

Featured distribution of the week: Foresight Linux

Foresight Linux

Foresight Linux made the headlines last week for being the first Linux distribution to ship with GNOME 2.12, only hours after the popular desktop environment was publicly announced and released. Since GNOME 2.12 is a major upgrade with some interesting new features, its presence in Foresight Linux provided a valid reason to download and install this new distribution.

First, a little background. Foresight Linux is based on rPath Linux (formerly known as Specifix Linux), built by several well-known ex-Red Hat software engineers, including Michael K. Johnson and Matt Wilson, among others. The main feature distinguishing rPath Linux from other distributions is its "Conary" package management, which promises to be a state-of-the-art software management system. Although the technical aspect of Conary are a little obscure and will mainly benefit enterprise customers with frequent needs to selectively upgrade certain packages across their networks, let's trust the developers who have extensive experience in package management and distribution building and who are likely to know what they are doing -- without having to study lengthy white papers describing the merits of Conary and rPath Linux.

Besides rPath Linux, Foresight Linux is the first distribution that uses the Conary package management. Unlike rPath, however, Foresight is clearly a desktop-oriented distribution, which means that it includes the latest versions of many software packages that are "shaping the future of Linux", as claims the release announcement. Beagle, Cowbell, F-Spot, Gnomebaker, Grisbi, Howl, Xchat-Gnome are the packages mentioned in this context. The introduction of a boot splash screen and a good selection of desktop applications further confirm the fact that Foresight Linux intends to be an innovative and attractive distribution for your desktop.

Once you install Foresight Linux on your computer, there is no need to re-install any new version of the distribution; instead, packages can be upgraded from within a convenient Synaptic-like graphical package management utility, called "Conary System Manager". Although it lacks a package search module, it is easy to use and it provides a quick list of available package updates in the right pane. The software is still in heavy development, but it is safe to use it for your package upgrade tasks.

Other than that, Foresight Linux is a nicely designed distribution with the Anaconda installer, pretty and functional GNOME desktop, and a good selection of best-loved open source applications available today. Give it a try and see for yourself!

If you live in Europe or if you've had a chance to visit one of the big news agents and book stores on the old continent, you've probably noticed a large number of Linux-related magazines available on the shelves. While many of these magazines are published by small, independent companies operating within the language market of their own country, there is one publisher that has made a tremendous effort to deliver Linux-related publications to large areas of Europe. This company is Software Wydawnictwo, based in Warsaw, Poland.

The editors of the Software Wydawnictwo publishing house were kind enough to send us sample copies of some of their magazines, including Linux+ DVD, Hakin9 and Software Developer's Journal. Although the last two include plenty of content related to open source software, only Linux+ is a magazine devoted entirely to Linux, with occasional sections dealing with other open source operating systems, such as BSD and OpenSolaris. It's worth mentioning that the company also publishes other interesting titles, including PHP Solutions and Aurox Linux.

We looked through the September issue of Linux+ DVD to find plenty of exciting content. Distribution reviews seem to occupy a large portion of the magazine and those who like to read authors' experiences with various products won't be disappointed. Brief reviews of Fedora Core 4, PC-BSD 0.7.5, Mandriva 2006 Beta, Aurox Linux 11.0, OpenSolaris, AGNULA/DeMuDi 1.2.1, and Xandros SurfSide Linux are all lined up for our attention. Besides distributions, there is also much database-related content in this issue, including an article about EnterpriseDB, an interview with David Axmark, a developer of MySQL, and a tutorial for MySQL Administrator. Several open source applications are also reviewed and the magazine includes good sections full of tips and tricks, a gamer's corner, and a Linux guide designed for absolute beginners. A comprehensive article deals with the current state of connecting mobile devices to systems running Linux. One thing we liked about the 82-page full-colour magazine is that it carries very little advertising.

The magazine includes two DVDs. The first of them is a bootable DVD containing the complete Fedora Core 4 and Fedora Extras for the i386 architecture, while the second one is packed with the latest software applications, books in PDF format, and several distributions, such as the magazine's very own Linux+ Live (based on Aurox Linux), INSERT, PC-BSD, and OpenSolaris. Interestingly, the DVD also contains 13 episodes of Go Open, a TV program about open source software created by The Shuttleworth Foundation and aired recently on a South African national TV station. That's quite a lot of interesting content to keep you occupied for a while!

I enjoyed the magazine tremendously. There are only two negatives worth mentioning: the first one is the fact that the writers seem to be biased towards Fedora Core and many of the tutorials assume that you are running Fedora or a Fedora-based distribution, while the second problem, potentially more serious, is that the magazine is not yet available in English. But those who are well versed in Czech, French, German, Polish or Spanish won't have a problem. However, certain other publications by Software Wydawnictwo do have English-language editions so it is possible that it won't be long before we'll also see the English edition of Linux+ on news stands.

For more information and subscriptions please visit Software Wydawnictwo at Software.com.pl.

Released Last Week

Network Security Toolkit 1.2.3

Network Security Toolkit (NST) is a Fedora-based bootable live CD designed to provide easy access to best-of-breed open source network security applications. A new version was released yesterday: "We are pleased to announce the 1.2.3 release of the NST. We have spent a considerable amount of time enhancing the management capabilities of the NST probe in addition to bringing the security tools up to date. In particular: Snort rules management and configuration; remote file/directory browsing; VNC session management; simplified virus scanning; and many additions to the NST web-based interface." See the release announcement on the project's home page.

Foresight Linux 0.9 is the first distribution release to ship with the brand new GNOME 2.12, released yesterday: "We are happy to announce the availability of Foresight Linux 0.9! Foresight takes another major step forward towards usability and functionality with the first release of the 0.9 series, and having the distinction of being the first distro to offer you GNOME 2.12! Featuring a refined look and improvements in just about every area, this is one hot tamale of a release! With 100s of bug fixes / feature improvements over 0.8.1, there are simply too many changes to list here...." Read the release announcement for more details.

Musix GNU+Linux 0.26

A new version of Musix GNU+Linux, a Knoppix-based live CD with a selection of specialist software for musicians, has been released: "The Musix GNU+Linux development team is proud to present a new improved version of the 100% free operating system for musicians." The release announcement, available in Spanish and English, includes some details about improvements in this release, such as substantial performance optimisation, addition of Timidity with Freepats and Hydrogen drum machine, synchronisation with Debian 'etch', and other new features.

Tao Live CD 4.02

Live CD is a live CD edition of Tao Linux, a distribution rebuilt from source RPMs of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. An updated version 4.02 has been released: "A new version of the Tao Live CD is available. Version 4.02 features: documentation for beginners (French and English); support for English (Canada & USA), French (Canada) and Spanish (Mexico) locales; kernel 2.6.9-11.SquashFS2; support for USB storage of userspace (still experimental). Tao Live uses a Squash filesystem to fit 2GB of programs into a standard bootable CD. OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Gaim, XMMS, K3b and many other programs are included. A few booting options are currently available." Read the full release announcement for further information.

Novell has announced the release of SUSE Linux 10.0, with availability in retail and online stores in early October: "Novell today announced SUSE Linux 10.0 will be available in retail and online stores in early October 2005. ... The full featured desktop delivered in SUSE Linux 10.0 includes the newest version of the popular Firefox web browser; the latest version of the Windows-compatible OpenOffice.org 2.0 office suite; email and instant messaging clients; graphics creation, editing, and management applications; plus important security tools like spam blockers, anti-virus software and an integrated firewall. Among the numerous new and updated features are the Beagle desktop search engine and Amarok with MP3 support out of the box." SUSE Linux 10.0 will retail for €59. For more information please read the complete press release. The final release of SUSE LINUX 10.0 is also expected to be available for free download on October 6th.

Slackware Linux 10.2

The latest information from Slackware's current changelog is that the release of Slackware Linux 10.2 is a matter of days, if not hours: "OK, everything was set in stone except for these things. ;-) There may still be a couple more changes (maybe), but this is pretty close." The official 4-CD set of Slackware Linux 10.2 can be pre-ordered from The Slackware Store for US$39.95.

As many of you have noticed, we have recently launched an experimental Podcast edition of DistroWatch Weekly. Shawn Milo is the person who has been doing his best to bring this to you every week; just please note that due to technical issues and time zone differences, the Podcast edition will be released up to 24 hours after the publication of DistroWatch Weekly. You can now also subscribe to the XML feed. In case you have any suggestions (including ideas for background music) about the Podcast edition, please email directly to Shawn Milo (shawnmilo at distrowatch.com). And, by the way, if you wish to contribute to the Podcast edition, our US-based readers can do so by calling 1-206-3-D-WATCH (206-339-2824) and leave a message, which will be sent to us as an electronic file. The quality's not great, so record your own if you have the equipment.

New distributions on the waiting list

CPX-MINI USB. CPX-MINI USB is a KANOTIX-based live Linux distribution that fits on a bootable 256MB USB storage device.

KuruJa Linux. KuruJa Linux is a new Brazilian Linux distribution based on Kurumin Linux, with the inclusion of Java packages for development.

Nonux. Nonux is a new Dutch Linux distribution, a combined live and installation CD based on Slackware and GNOME. The distribution is optimised for business use, with some applications localised into Dutch.

X-DSL. X-DSL is a small, but fully-functional Linux distribution for the Xbox, based on Damn Small Linux.

That's all for this week. We hope you've enjoyed this issue of DistroWatch Weekly!

Ladislav Bodnar

Reader Comments

1 • Nice! (by war on 2005-09-12 11:44:08 GMT from United States)
Excellent distrowatch, keep up the good work!2 • Microsoft tries to hire Eric S Raymond (by Nate on 2005-09-12 11:51:46 GMT from United States)
Eric Raymond _DID NOT_ get a job offer from Microsoft, A VENDER of Microsoft sent a canned email to him to setup an interview.. Additionally his response is an embarrassment to the OSS community, very unprofessional and pompous. I never thought the story would have been posted here... Slashdot yes but Distrowatch!?! I am disappointed.3 • Microsoft tries to hire Eric S Raymond (by ladislav on 2005-09-12 11:56:15 GMT from Taiwan)
Sorry, I forgot to put up a disclaimer before the story: please only read it if you have any sense of humour!4 • No subject (by bob on 2005-09-12 12:07:18 GMT from United States)
oh come on we all hate microsoft and those attached to it. it feels good to bash at them and every once and a while you need to do it to them. i applaud his responce. if only more of us were that outspoken we might get more done.5 • Boot time. (by Mike on 2005-09-12 12:22:23 GMT from United Kingdom)
My LFS system boots to the command prompt in about 10 seconds, and that's without backgrounding anything. As for the time it takes Fluxbox to load... [blinks and misses it]6 • Microsoft tries to hire Eric S Raymond (by Wes on 2005-09-12 12:29:11 GMT from United States)
Love that7 • Microsoft tries to hire Eric S Raymond (by crawancon on 2005-09-12 12:43:16 GMT from United States)
unprofessional? i think it's microsoft that's unprofessional. powered by greed, deception, and ignorance, i would only hope to refuse a job offer in the same well-said manner as Mr Raymond. Yes, it wasn't a "job offer" more like an "interview offer" but still... get a clue and a sense of humor.8 • 4 distributions enter final testing stages (by Any1 on 2005-09-12 12:50:13 GMT from Argentina)
I thinks its mandriva 2006, (or mandrake 10.3), I always thought 10.2 was mandriva 2005 L.E.

Great read, as always9 • ESR's response inappropriate (by JLB on 2005-09-12 12:59:38 GMT from United States)
I find ESR's reply rather inappropriate (albeit very funny though). Since I feel ESR is part of the OSS community, his responses reflect on the OSS community...

Something along the lines of ... I am Eric S. Raymond. Look it up! may have been more appropriate.10 • No subject (by MixMatch on 2005-09-12 13:10:44 GMT from United States)
The great part about OSS community is freedom. ESR can say whatever he wants, because OSS covers such a broad range of personalities. I find it unfortunate that people try to narrow down the scope of what people in the OSS community can say. If I feel like saying that Microsoft sucks and that I don't think anybody should use it, I'm perfectly free to do so. Guess what, I'm part of the OSS community just as much as he is. The only difference is that he has contributed so much more.

Everyone who uses OSS is a spokesperson, so get over it. If anything, this is a great example of the mighty monolythical Microsoft frequently over looks the oh-so-important details that OSS is all about...11 • No subject (by mixmatch on 2005-09-12 13:12:38 GMT from United States)
"If anything, this is a great example of the mighty monolythical Microsoft frequently over looks the oh-so-important details that OSS is all about..."

If anything, this is a great example of how the mighty monolythical Microsoft frequently over looks the oh-so-important details that OSS is all about...

sorry... wouldn't want to get misinterpreted...12 • SUSE and Mandriva switching roles (by Leo on 2005-09-12 13:13:26 GMT from United States)
It's funny how, historically, while both SUSE and Mandrake have had good reputation as user friendly, SUSE was considered more stable, and Mandrake more of a bleeding edge distro. These days, SUSE is more on the bleeding edge with Xen, OO.org 2.0, etc., and Mandriva seems to be betting the farm on stability, always releasing stable, well tested (but a bit outdated) versions of software. What do you all think ?

IMHO, this is a smart move on SUSE side. They'll keep the bleeding edge for the mases, and give a more solid, slowly moving target to the corporate users (the ones that actually bring money). And Mandriva should be doing the same, IMHO. But what do I know, I wish them both the best.

Cheers!13 • 4 main distros.. (by KiM on 2005-09-12 13:47:50 GMT from Egypt)
hello..!! a nice monday reading with distro..thx...there is an egyptian Mandriva tuned on 2 CDs and its very good also.... but i still like ubuntu better with both Gnome and KDE..allow me to offer my deep condolences to Xandros team..KiM...thx14 • Eric Raymond's remarks to a recruiter, White Box helping Katrina refugees (by Ed Borasky on 2005-09-12 14:16:13 GMT from United States)
I too was somewhat saddened by Eric Raymond's choice of responses to the letter from a recruiter. That's just not the way you respond to a recruiter. They have a wide network, and such disrespect -- bordering on narcissistic arrogance in my opinion -- will be communicated widely.

I don't think of it as a reflection on the Open Source community. But it does make me think a lot less of Eric Raymond. Unless he's independently wealthy, he just made his life a **lot** more difficult. I think a **public** apology is in order.

To end on a positive note for the Open Source community, I'm given to understand that the folks at White Box Enterprise Linux, located near the hurricane Katrina devastation, have been instrumental in providing Internet connectivity and other support to refugees from the flooding. Any chance of DistroWatch coming up with an extra donation to them to help out?15 • Suse 10.0 release date (by DTR on 2005-09-12 14:29:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
It is due out on the 6th of October according to opensuse.org website16 • Linux mag market (by pp on 2005-09-12 15:03:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
the market in english speaking Europe could be a bit saturated, or what do you think? I live in Cambridge, UK and can buy at least:

My superquick review:Linux Format - run by brats and "gurus" who like to put their pics on it - suits the teenager taste. But the content is very good.Linux Magazine (non-US) - more professional look and feel, concentrates on intermediate usersLinux Magazine (US) - quite hard core professional stuff. never buy it.Linux User & developer - Looks very mainstream and good, but I don't find the content interesting enough.

My winner: Linux Magazine (non-US)

The prices are insane, £ 6.50 for a mag. The DVD:s are totally useless - just distros that you can download easily.17 • No subject (by Andy on 2005-09-12 15:17:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
He should of took the job. It would be good to have someone of his expertise on the inside!! .

'keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer!!'18 • Re: Microsoft tries to hire Eric S Raymond (by Anon Doofer on 2005-09-12 15:27:35 GMT from United States)
Wonder why the general public in many countries doesn't view the open source movement with trust and credibility. Could it be, at least partially, because of self-appointed leaders who act like children? Could it be because the community celebrates those childish acts? You know, this would have actually been a funny little story, had not Eric acted like an arrogant, spoiled eight-year old. I would have hoped we'd rise above, not sink below.19 • Screenshots inaccessible again:( (by istoyanov on 2005-09-12 15:33:38 GMT from Bulgaria)
For example: "You don't have permission to access /images/screenshots/foresight-0.9.png on this server."

Last week I had the same problems when trying to see the screenshots in their full glory:(

Anyway, thanks for another great issue of DW Weekly!!!20 • Hackin9 magazine (by Eric on 2005-09-12 15:40:39 GMT from Malaysia)
Ladislav, I subscribe to the Hackin9 PDF edition from Software Wydawnictwo and it NEVERS arrives on time and I need to send numerous emails and cc to every email address in their magazine just to get their attention. I must agree the content is good but they need to get their act together.

Also, I believe in freedom of speech as any person but I do find that ESR's response was a tad childish. I meant he is a recognised "leader" of the FLOSS community, what kinda signal are we sending to whose unsaved sould in MS hell? Cheers!21 • Microsoft buying up competition (by CJ on 2005-09-12 15:59:22 GMT from United States)
It is obvious that M$ is trying to "hire" all the OSS advocates they can. That way it puts an end to their competition.22 • Linux magazines (by Taft on 2005-09-12 16:06:34 GMT from Canada)
pp, I can't believe you forgot to mention Linux Journal. Is it not widely available in Europe? Also I thought Linux Magazine (the one that's available here in North America) was a British publication. It looks great but the NA subscription rates are astronomical compared to LJ. Any other good North American Linux magazines anyone would like to plug?23 • Octoz (by Marc on 2005-09-12 16:31:48 GMT from Canada)
Hi Ladislav,Just to inform you that the Octoz distrois no more. It has been replaced by Hedlinux. Check on Octoz site for moredetails.

Thank for another entertaining DWW.24 • I agree with CJ (by fnobths on 2005-09-12 16:38:38 GMT from United States)
Take out your enemy's leaders and watch your enemies fall. That's what Micro$oft is doing. That is what they always have done. Don't compete, buy them out.25 • Free Linux magazines (by LinuxHungry on 2005-09-12 17:40:03 GMT from United States)
I've found a few free Linux magazines in pdf format.

Quote: 'The DVD:s are totally useless - just distros that you can download easily.'

You might be able to download them easily, but I can't because I am on a 56K modem. I would not have got into Linux without the Magazine cover disks!

Even those that CAN download might be tempted to try a distro off a cover disk, cos its quick and easy, that they would not bother to download.27 • Go Open TV torrents (by LinuxHungry on 2005-09-12 18:06:31 GMT from United States)
Links to the bittorrents of the Go Open tv shows.

Any lesser comment would have left an equal number of people wondering whether ESR was actually contemplating a move to MS and we would have to endure all the agonizing over whether OSS was loosing one of its leading lights. Thank god we don't have to endure that nonsense.29 • Bootup Speed (by arnie on 2005-09-12 18:45:56 GMT from United States)
The SUPER version of SUSE 10.0 (RC1) boots to the KDE login screen in 30 Seconds and to the end of the startup sound in 46. (AMD 2200+)30 • Mandriva boot times (by Warpengi on 2005-09-12 18:46:24 GMT from Canada)
This is something long overdue. As stated in the article Windows XP has always beat Linux in that area. I have been waiting for this for a long time. Maybe it's time to purchase a Mandriva Club membership again.31 • ESR's comments to M$ (by Fred Stephens on 2005-09-12 19:23:45 GMT from United States)
Funniest thing I've read in months! Quit whining about childish, lack of respect, etc. Just enjoy Eric's wit and a good laugh at M$'s expense. The suits and the general public aren't going to read this stuff anyway.

Being a Gentoo fan, I was disapointed when Daniel Robbins went to work for them. We can only hope he works to change them from the inside.32 • The Problem with the USA (by Bill Savoie on 2005-09-12 21:21:23 GMT from United States)
I live in Albama. So don't flame, but it seems to me that the USA is at a cross road. Our war in far away countries, our inept president, and our greed prevent us from being civilized. New Orleans was an example of 'theory' of 'No taxes' vs what government needs to be. I think the rest of the world is learning the limitations of our National ego. Microsoft is just another straw on the back of the poor.Linux is another whole approach, more Buddhist in action. The world will learn to love in time..Thanks Ladislav for the chance to feel connected to humanity, even here in Alabama. Nothing can stop us..we are the small ones... one bit at a time..33 • Linux Magazines (by EEDOK on 2005-09-12 21:32:25 GMT from Canada)
I'm subscribed to Tux and Linux Magazine(Non-US), I like Linux Magazine better but $130 for a years subscription is insane, but it's nice to get things like SuSe 9.3 Professional on DVD with the magazine.34 • Bill Savoie (by CJ on 2005-09-12 21:46:08 GMT from United States)
Yay! Another person from Alabama!35 • ESR (by ray carter at 2005-09-12 22:04:20 GMT from United States)
For my two cents worth - according to what I've been able to decipher from the varying accounts, it seems that the offer was an unsolicited offer from a corporate 'head hunter'. He got what he deserved.36 • *Ahem* (by 1c3d0g on 2005-09-12 22:10:19 GMT from Aruba)
Let me be the first to offer my condolences to the family and friends of the Chairman and co-founder of Xandros. It's sad to see someone leave this world at such an age, but we should also be confident that he is in a better place now, where there's no more pain and suffering. May he rest in peace.

About Slackware: does anybody have a clue if the first CD contains everything that's needed to install Slackware (including KDE)? I'm asking this as it's incredibly annoying to have to download and burn 2 CD's for one distro. I really hope Pat included KDE in the first CD.37 • Boot Time (by Anonymous on 2005-09-12 22:35:56 GMT from Australia)
"while many distributions have been talking about speeding up the boot process, an area where no Linux distribution compares favourably with Microsoft Windows"

Eh? Try AUSTRUMI - on AMD1800 boots (from CD!) in 35sec with all the apps (AbiWord, Gnumeric, GIMP,Apache,....list goes on) already loaded into ram...38 • Real title: Eric S Raymond assumes an email is from Microsoft (by Visible on 2005-09-12 23:35:15 GMT from Canada)
Here are my beefs:If you are going to post something please at least it and others comments. Several people clearly explained that the email was just from some vendor. These comments have been posted for a day or two before this even came out. This site usually is a good resource.

My personal opinion, that blog post is garbage. This may sound harsh but here is why I feel that way. It is a waste of time for everyone who reads it. Its not even acurate. He hasn't fixed it either. If he had, there wouldn't be all these false news site postings telling everyone that Microsoft tried to hire Mr. Raymond when that is false. Now ignore how he was mistaken in who sent the letter. His response itself was bad form too.39 • Boot times (by Ben on 2005-09-12 23:40:48 GMT from Australia)
Boot times are no doubt very important for Windows, and for embedded devices, since these are likely restarted often. But a Linux desktop? I have no idea how long it takes my Debian boxes, but rebooting is required so rarely that it is a null issue.40 • The Letter!! (by Anonymous on 2005-09-13 01:03:06 GMT from United States)
If I was ESR; I would have "highly" recommended that the pursue candidates like: Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds. This would have been a great gag to pass around to various OSS developers.

Just my .02cents worth.41 • VLOS 1.21 (by mikkh on 2005-09-13 01:14:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
YAY, great improvement on the rush job that was 1.2Anyone curious about Gentoo, but doesn't want the long winded (but none the less educational) install of 'straight' Gentoo should try this

The default Gnome is fine, but I 'emerged' KDE anyway just to see what it was like. A mere 14 hours of compiling later.............

KDE 3.4 in all it's glory :o)

The yukiyu portage front end doesn't work from the menu which is a bit of an oversight, but you can get it running by typing 'yukiyu' in a terminal window - or just use the emerge command42 • FreeBSD LiveCD: FreeSBIE (by Antonio on 2005-09-13 01:30:25 GMT from United States)
Dear FreeSBIE developers, I would like to ask when the new version of FreeSBIE is coming out. Also I have some wishes, I like XFCE, but KDE is great and I am more used to it. I wish FreeSBIE would have tetex, gnuplot and kile. I can do without OpenOffice and in the case it is made with KDE, Koffice is fine. Somehow the new BSDLive CD, 50 MB does not work with one of the machines, but it does on the other.

Either way, thanks to GUFI gruppo utenti from Italy for making BSD more accessible from a live cd and thanks to all bsd developers across the world. I like both Linux and BSD.43 • Gee laugh a little... (by Scott Wilson on 2005-09-13 02:53:02 GMT from United States)
Folks,Laugh a little, I do think its funny.44 • humorless prudes (by wouter on 2005-09-13 03:08:04 GMT from Belgium)
Oh dear, Jeebus will not like all that talking about misusing baseball bats and pissing on graves. And mocking the pope... Think about the children! And the good god-fearing people at Microsoft! Censor this forum! Contact our friends in governement!

Dzz.

Can someone tell me where that satanic orgy is that ESR mentions in his email? Something tells me the pope isn't going (not now it's public, anyway) and I just ran out of women and goats.45 • No subject (by ShakaZ on 2005-09-13 04:05:38 GMT from Belgium)
+1 for ESR & for wouter's comments living up to the surrealistic heart of our small country46 • Re: VLOS 1.21 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-09-13 07:22:38 GMT from Italy)
"YAY, great improvement on the rush job that was 1.2"

Undoubtedly. However there are still some minor annoying issues.Example: I emerged BitTornado but it refuses to start. I emerged Firestarter but it had no configuration file. I compiled it manually but it won't still work: "your kernel does not support iptables". Sound seems also to be problematic: I have a Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit.This kind of minor irritating issues: I don't know what has to do with Gentoo and what with VLOS, but to someone used to have (almost) everything working out of the box in Debian...

"The default Gnome is fine, but I 'emerged' KDE anyway"

Funny. I started emerging KDE just minutes before reading your post :) (but then I definitely prefer KDE)47 • Re: SUSE and Mandriva switching roles (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-09-13 08:53:38 GMT from Italy)
"IMHO, this is a smart move on SUSE side."

I don't know what will happen in the end, but SUSE 10.0 RC1 is by far the buggiest RC operating system I have ever tried in my life.They simply won't have enough time to squash all the bugs before the official release. Maybe other people's experiences might differ, I don't know...In the meantime I can't still solve my personal dilemma: which distro I should use to dual boot with Debian/Kanotix?48 • RE: Anonymous Pengiun (by 1c3d0g on 2005-09-13 11:14:51 GMT from Aruba)
If you prefer KDE, there's another firewall called Guarddog, which is more KDE-centric than Firestarter.

Hope this helps!49 • Re: 1c3d0g (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-09-13 11:40:23 GMT from Italy)
Thanks, I'll carefully consider both options :)50 • Re: SUSE and Mandriva switching roles (by Leo on 2005-09-13 11:45:35 GMT from United States)
> In the meantime I can't still solve my personal dilemma: > which distro I should use to dual boot with Debian/Kanotix?

Have you tried Mepis ? It's getting great reviews, an I read an interview with the main dev and he seems quite sensible! But if you are looking on some non-debian based, it's hard to tell, I am still sticking with Mandriva (it just works for me), but it bothers me to be always one release behind in pretty much every piece of software ...51 • Re: Re: SUSE and Mandriva switching roles (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-09-13 11:53:03 GMT from Italy)
"But if you are looking on some non-debian based, it's hard to tell,"

Indeed, that is exactly the point. Till May I was dual booting with SUSE, but then I had enough, too many issues. SUSE 10.0 seemed very promising, but I am worried by the bugs.Ol good Mandrake/driva looks like a good alternative.52 • Good Laugh (by LinuxHungry on 2005-09-13 14:42:43 GMT from United States)
Found this animation thought I might pass it on.

http://www.ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=5453 • No subject (by Flori on 2005-09-14 06:49:20 GMT from Albania)
First. Anyway, just wanted to say I am impressed how professional the Distrowatch Weekly has become! Keep the good work Ladislav !54 • Boot time (by Leo on 2005-09-14 11:42:18 GMT from United States)
On the boot time, I respectfully disagree in part with Ladislav. First off, it is true that boot time acan/should be improved, and the key is to branch init processes to parallel background processes whenever possible (taking care of dependecies, some processes need a previous one to have finished). This is very important in SMP machines, and with quads apparently going to become mainstream in a couple years - using dual cores -, this is a must. Faster code execution and cleaner code would help too.

But IMHO windows boot is not fast. I am forced to use WinXP at work and it sucks. This is a dual processor, fairly recent hardware. From boot up to the GUI it *is* fast. But then there are still a thousand processes running. I you immediately login, your desktop is unusable for a long time.

Don't get me wrong, this is also important, it gives the user a sense of a responsive OS (the first part). But then it gives the impression of a slow dow after login. So I dunno, maybe a compromise where none of the stages is really too slow.

Finally, as very of you pointed out, you can always use a light distro, disallow unneded services, etc., this is the beauty of the flexibility of Linux. So it is not true in general that "linux" is behind Windows IMHO.

CheersLeo55 • cd 3 Mandrake beta 2006 off mirror (by flebber on 2005-09-14 13:54:11 GMT from Australia)
what has happened ? to the CD3 iso of 2006 disc 3 its 11.52pm on the 14th of sept in Australia. the ftp mirror listed from distrowatch has disc 1 & 2 still but not 356 • Podcast (by LinuxHungry on 2005-09-14 14:07:02 GMT from United States)
The podcast is not working. The old podcast downloads but the new one will not.57 • pocketlinux (by Ariszló on 2005-09-14 15:16:50 GMT from Hungary)
The ISO link should point to http://www.gnulinux.de/pocketlinux/index.php/Main/Downloadand not to http://pud.sca-tw.org/download.htm58 • new mandriva RC (by Leo on 2005-09-14 20:18:54 GMT from United States)
Ladislav

THe new RC (RC2) for mandriva has been posted in the development twiki

my 2 cts :-)59 • Slackware 10.2 (by A slacker on 2005-09-15 00:41:19 GMT from Finland)
Slackware, the oldest Linux distribution, is still alive and kicking harder than ever! Slackware 10.2, it's the real thing -- go for it! : )60 • Multiple (by x on 2005-09-15 06:06:19 GMT from United States)
1. My condolences to the associates and family of the deceased. While many may not approve of the approach Xandros has taken, they have been responsible for introducing new users to the Linux experiance that may not have without something like Xandros. Many will go on to other distributions and some will willingly stay with it.

2. Do you think Microsoft and its users would benefit if Professor Moglen were to guide and head their legal operations along with Dr. Stallman directing the distribution and marketing of all their products. But then would Linus and friends volunteer to fix the bugs?

Just imagine the headlines 'Gates and Balmer see the light and release under the GNU License - visit your friendly GNU site today!'

I am traveling and have had difficulty keeping up. Thanks for the continuing publication. Will check back in a couple of weeks.61 • podcast feed (by ShawnMilo on 2005-09-15 11:50:09 GMT from United States)
The podcast should be working again. I put it up on Tuesday and it downloaded via the feed, but I received an e-mail from Ladislav this morning saying it wasn't working. I re-copied the audio files and it should be okay now. Contact me if there are any problems.62 • Podcast (by LinuxHungry on 2005-09-15 12:53:04 GMT from United States)
Podcast is working now.

Thankx63 • Must of been a real offer. (by Scott Wilson on 2005-09-15 13:50:36 GMT from United States)
Here is an intersing article on ESR and Microsoft. MS is strating to remind ne of the borg. Open Source leaders beaware!Microsoft Makes a Mea Culpa for Hiring Situation, http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1857430,00.asp#talkback64 • Re: Must of been a real offer. (by Raven on 2005-09-15 22:21:36 GMT from United States)
*Starting* to remind you of the Borg?65 • Ok OK (by Scott Wilson on 2005-09-16 02:22:01 GMT from United States)
They are the Borg. Just trying to be nice.66 • GamesKnoppix DVD (by LinuxHungry on 2005-09-16 05:07:56 GMT from United States)
Just downloaded the GamesKnoppix DVD works great! Detected my Nvadia video card on boot up! The games should keep me and my son busy for awhile. Shame that the regular Knoppix dvd did not include the Nvidia driver... I wonder if I could save it on a usb drive from the Games dvd and use it on boot up of the Knoppix dvd.67 • Re: GamesKnoppix DVD (by Anonymous Penguin on 2005-09-16 15:06:18 GMT from Italy)
Very nice indeed! I have installed it to my HD. It requires a bit more work than Kanotix to set it up the way I like it (example: I had to use a Kano's script to set up pppoe) and has some minor bugs. Also an attempt to upgrade KDE to unstable would remove a few games. Other than that is nice, I am planning to keep it in one of my 4 linux partitions.